Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Mujitsu wrote:

Many of us stress unnecessarily about cracks. Cracks are 'badges of
honor' which reveal history. If repaired efficiently, they should not
have any influence on the life of a flute.

One less thing to worry about!

Ken

Praise the Shakuhachi Gods that you said this Ken. Unfortunately there are numerous neurotic shakuhachists who think their flutes should never and will never crack. Or who refuse to play one that has. The wrath of the Bamboo Spirits will be upon them and their descendants.

Regarding your comment on soaking the bamboo overnight Ken, I recently talked with a craftsperson who makes bamboo fencing and his comment was that the bamboo suffers more from sinlight than rain.

Kel.

Mujitsu wrote:

A humid box is ideal, or
the flute can simply be wrapped in a damp towel, then placed in a
plastic bag and left overnight. This works so well that sometimes the
crack line is invisible in the morning. Then, thin glue or urushi can be
applied to the line and wiped clean. Follow with binding. Or, eliminate
the glue/urushi step and apply binding only.

OK, so I wrapped it in a damp towel, the cracks became invisible and I bound it. The problem is that after it dried again the cracks were visible, that didn't bother me, but it was obviously leaking again. So I repeated the process adding even more bindings. It played great for a while, even better than the first humidifying and binding, but now it's leaking again (but not as bad). There's no room left to put more bindings on either. I was thinking of oiling the inside to help seal the leaks. Is this a bad idea? Is there another way? Is the thin glue you mention to seal leaks?

The first cracked shakuhachi I fixed, I forced the crack closed with hose clamps and used the gel kind of superglue. Then I kept applying the glue until any leaks disappeared. I'd hate to do that again on this flute even though it's not as nice of a flute.

This may not be the solution but I very recently had an experience that may be helpful to you. I had a really crappy piece of bamboo I was stubbornly trying to make something resembling a shakuhachi. The bamboo was not only from a dead culm that had not cured properly, but before I decided to make a flute out of it it was sitting in an air conditioned room for months with no humidity or protection. The whole piece was basically destroyed, and even when I wrapped it in a towel and put it in a bag overnight then bound it with 60lb monofilament the huge cracks would open up again and become unplayable. Yesterday I picked it up (I had left it out as a sort of reminder to try again someday) and was determined not to let it go to waste and decided to try a new set of bindings one last time. As I was binding it I noticed something I had never noticed before: As I was putting a binding over one of the larger cracks I noticed how tight I had to bind to actually close the crack. I could actually see that this binding was doing the job where the other bindings had failed. I was so happy at this realization that I took off all the old bindings and put on something like 20 new, really really tight ones (It's a 2.6 piece, lots of room to cover). The flute now plays perfectly (or rather it plays as well as one would expect from such an awfully treated piece of bamboo) and it's been over a week since I bound it.

The moral of the story is you need to bind really, really tight. If you don't see the crack being pulled closed you bind, it won't be held closed when the flute dries. Hope this helps, good luck.

Kabato wrote:

The moral of the story is you need to bind really, really tight. If you don't see the crack being pulled closed you bind, it won't be held closed when the flute dries. Hope this helps, good luck.

Hmm... I can't use the crack being pulled shut as a gauge on this one because when it's humidified the cracks close. It could be that the bindings aren't tight enough, but I put quite a bit of force on them when put them on. I even broke the 50 pound fishing line once during the process. I have some heavier line that I used on the other flute, but it's a wierd neon color.

I probably waited a half hour or so during which the flute just sat out, so I could see exactly which big cracks were opening up again. It could also be the number of really tight bindings I put on there, maybe for some really long cracks you just need many bindings.

A possible inconvenience of the rag/bag method is that it soaks the flute. If you are going to use glue, then it may not work as well on wet bamboo. I prefer the humid box method because it doesn't soak the bamboo.

Some don't like the idea of adding super glue. Some use it every time. Sometimes, I'll use it only if tight binding alone doesn't keep the crack closed. If you want to use it before binding, just run it all along the closed crack. It will soak in immediately. Wipe quickly with an acetone soaked rag.

I like to use water to check for leaks because it quickly dries. I would imagine that oil might interfere with glue. But, if it works, it works!

Ken

Put a humidified sponge and the flute in a sealed container and boom!  No more cracks.  As long as the environment is humid and not to cold, you SHOULD be able to avoid the cracking altogether.  I have been told that it is bad to use superglue to seal a crack because if the crack opens up again, it could be irrepairable.  Is this true?